Fresh off winning a gold medal with Germany at EuroBasket 2025, Magic forward Franz Wagner is elated to have an opportunity to play an NBA game in his home country in January when Orlando faces Memphis in Berlin, as Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel writes. Wagner is also embracing loftier expectations after the Magic’s offseason trade for Desmond Bane.
“Our expectations should be higher than any of the other years,” the 6’10” forward said this week. “I mean, we added Desmond Bane [and] some other really good players to the roster. Talent-wise, mentality-wise, we should go into the year thinking like a contender — not cutting ourselves short and believing in the chance that we’ve got.”
While Wagner took a significant step forward in many respects last season, he shot below 30% from three-point range for the second year in a row after converting nearly 36% of his outside looks over his first two campaigns. He’s hoping to show his offseason work paid off entering 2025/26, according to Beede.
“I worked a lot on my three,” Wagner said about his summer. “I thought I had stretches in EuroBasket where I shot it a lot better and I think I can be more consistent with that. So, I’m super excited to show that.”
Here’s more on the Magic:
- President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman recently spoke glowingly of center Wendell Carter Jr. For his part, the 26-year-old big man says he’s feeling great after a healthy offseason (story via Beede). “My confidence is at an all-time high right now,” Carter said. “I’m feeling good. When I had this summer just to train, it wasn’t necessarily about me becoming a better shooter — I know I can shoot. It wasn’t about me being able to make moves in the post like I know I can do. It was just about me boosting my confidence. Because the more you work, the more you’re on the court, you get out there and you feel like, ‘OK, I know this is going in,’ even if it doesn’t. I know it feels good. I shot a million of these shots throughout the summer.”
- Guard Anthony Black feels comfortable in his third training camp with Orlando, according to Beede. The 21-year-old will be eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer. “When AB is on his game, in my opinion, he’s one of the best guards in this league,” Carter said. “When he’s playing carefree — not saying careless — when he’s just flowing and relying on his strengths, getting downhill, attacking the basket, shooting open threes, not turning them down, AB is a tough guard. He’s tough to guard for anybody. Anyone else would say that on this team, coaching staff included. When AB is just playing his game, he’s very hard to guard.”
- After Thursday’s practice, rookie first-rounder Jase Richardson discussed the physical adjustment of going from college to playing in the NBA and what his role has been so far in training camp (Twitter video links via Beede). “Just being a guy who’s willing to guard,” the 6’3″ guard said. “I think that’s the biggest thing for me. I have to show that I can guard, especially at my size.”